Limestone quarries ruin Gunungkidul's beauty

Limestone quarries ruin Gunungkidul's beauty

Bambang M and Gigin W Utomo, Contributors, Yogyakarta

Hilly Gunungkidul is often stereotyped as a barren land where
life is tough when the prolonged dry spell causes a severe
drought in many subdistricts, notably the coastal south.

In the world of science, Gunungkidul is internationally famed
for not only its traces of prehistoric man, but also its chain of
gorgeous, cone-shaped karst that one Western scientist has said
is found nowhere else on the planet.

The karst cones, green during the wet season and reddish
during the dry, form a chain in the southern coastal areas down
to the east, ending in Pacitan, an East Java town bordering
Central Java province.

"The cones form wet tropical karst that locals call Pegunungan
Sewu (Thousand Mountains)," said E.T. Paripurna, a lecturer at
Yogyakarta-based UPN Veteran University's School of Geology.

Composed mostly of carbonate stones, the mountain range starts
in Oya River in the subdistrict of Wonosari. It stretches some 85
kilometers to Pacitan. With an average width of some 25
kilometers, the mountain range covers an area of some 2,000
square kilometers of land.

Comprising some 50,000 karst hills, Pegunungan Sewu boasts
breathtaking landscape.

The conical karst that MacDonald and Partners of the British
Cave Research Association once referred to as the best in the
world is, in fact, just one aspect of the beauty it offers.

Gorgeous caves, along with its underground rivers and the
great varieties of exokarst (surface karst) and indokarst
(underground karst) won Pegunungan Sewu the status of a World
Natural Heritage Site in 1994 from the International Union of
Speleology.

Unfortunately, all the beauty is in the process of
destruction, as limestone quarrying is a growing industry in the
region.

It is true that locals have been quarrying limestone using
traditional equipment for as long as people can remember, but
major concern began only in the 1990s when big business arrived
with sophisticated technology. The large-scale exploitation of
karst is all legal. The businesses have the requisite permits
from the Gunungkidul regency government.

The karst is used as a component in various products, such as
fertilizer and cosmetics, and also for making works of art like
statues.

Environmentalists fear that if the current trend continues,
there will be no karst hills left because the regency government
sees the quarrying project as a major source of income as part of
the regional autonomy. Gunungkidul, which has a population of
736,000, is among the poorest regencies in Indonesia with a per
capita income of Rp 1.3 million (about US$153).

"Limestone quarrying is a business with good prospects that
can jack up local government income," said Sumedi, chief of
Gunungkidul government economic affairs office.

Sumedi's view explains why the local administration has been
allowing investors to exploit the karst. So far, 13 companies
have entered the business.

So, over the past few years, the beautiful karst hills have
disappeared, one by one. In many places, there are pathetic
sights to be seen: lime hills being blasted.

Many companies are so negligent they have abandoned their
quarries without refilling the resultant pits once the hills have
been removed. They simply ignored the government's requirement
that the pits be refilled and trees be planted there.

The businesspeople also ignored a legal requirement for an
environmental impact assessment before starting their project.

The exploitation of the conical karst hills has undeniably
caused damage to the environment. Many have questioned if the tax
revenue is worth all the environmental destruction.

In the 2002 budget, the income from karst quarrying was set at
Rp 132 million, far below the Rp 640 million from tourism.

Environmentalists say that the removal of the limestone hills,
which hold water during the rainy season, will only worsen the
annual water crisis in the region because the rainwater will seep
into the many underground streams and empty into the sea.

Signs of the disappearance of groundwater have been obvious
in, for example, Kajar village, near the main town of Wonosari,
where locals have found it difficult to obtain water after the
karst hills in the region were quarried.

However, deputy head of Gunungkidul water supply company
(PDAM) Isnawan said that the quarrying activities had not yet
affected the water sources PDAM manages but was sure that they
would eventually be affected in the future.

Other negative impacts of the quarrying activities include an
increase in the level of lime in the groundwater that most
residents consume.

Under increasing pressure to review its quarrying policy, the
Gunungkidul administration is working in partnership with Gadjah
Mada University to identify zones: which areas may be exploited
and which not.

Paripurno said that karst quarrying should be carefully
managed and only limestone in flat areas should be allowed, while
exploitation of hills should cease.

"Caves and places where underground streams run should not be
quarried," he said.

The Gunungkidul administration has also been advised to take
good care of the karst hills and turn them into tourist
attractions, which would be more sustainable and profitable, as
previous experience has shown.